At Juvenal 5.141-45, Virro distributes a curious series of presents to the children of his impoverished client Trebius: a viridis thorax, nuts, and an as. Through an exploration of the connotations attached to these gifts, I argue that the scene provides a vivid mise en abyme for the rest of the poem. Just as the dinner offered to Trebius is not only meager but transforms him into a buffoon, the presents given to his children are both mean and perverse. In (...) particular, the viridis thorax has un-Roman and effeminate connotations akin to the description of patronage as a sexual perversion in Satire 9. (shrink)

As Odysseus cautiously prepares to enter the straits plagued by Charybdis and Scylla, he encourages his crew by referring to his earlier success against the Cyclops ( Od. 12.208-12). This article argues that the Odyssey constructs the Scylla adventure as a tale of heroic failure in contrast with the Cyclops episode. Special attention is paid to narrative paradigms that underlie the Scylla episode and emphasize Odysseus' inability to defeat the monster. I further show that the Cyclops/Scylla contrast serves both as (...) an argument presented to Odysseus' internal Phaeacian audience and an interpretive key for the external audience. (shrink)